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BB has a very unique tone he gets with his 335. I have tried all types of combo pedals. amps. guitar settings, and still not quite there.

I know I don't have his fingers or heart, and I know want to copy BB exactly, just the tone sound I love. Does anybody know what setup he uses? Amp & settings, front or back pickup, and tone, pedals, etc? Or is it just all BB magic :-)

weelie is close--he's accurate on the amps up to the late '80's/early '90's when he switched over to LAB series.

But he does vary the pickup selections on the guitar. I think he even uses the varitone on occasion. The quintessential tone is both pickups on, but you can find neck or bridge pickup by themselves if you listen to enough.

I think most of his magic came w/the Fender amps, though some of his early '90's stuff like Live At The Apollo, and Blues Summit feature great tones and may be a mix of Fender and LAB.

And it's not a huge deal, but he plays a 355, not a 335. The varitone switch, and also just the ebony board offers different tones. Since the '80's he's had his Lucille model, no F-holes. I've heard him say the guitar is solid. I'm not sure that's true, but they are very heavy.

I wasn't going to respond to this because I thought it was going to get moved, but since it is still here...

The ebony fingerboard is a HUGE part of the sound. If you've only played rosewood board semi hollows, then the first time you pick one up with an ebony board it is pretty shocking, and you say "THAT'S IT!". If you ever see a Lucille for sale somewhere, be sure to try it out just to have an idea.

On Live in Cook County Jail, the tone really changes with the dynamics and gets very thin when he turns the volume down. Listening to it recently, my first thought was his treble bleed cap must be too large. But more likely, there is no treble bleed cap and it's just the Fletcher Munson curve in action.

I noticed that too, amphead, but boy when he turns it up, it sounds FAT! How Blue Can You Get starts out really nervous, thin, and noodly, and after about two rounds in the intro, the switch comes on and the whole band is on fire, and BB is just killin'!

i think much of that is done through the sound boards. Ive seen BB many times and although he doesent move around any more his tone changes
withoout him appearing to do anything.

Ive got a Pro rev reissue and with an LP using
decent HB's and a medium cap .33
with the neck and the amp up to about 4.
if I roll back the tone to say 3 and the vol to 5 it comes cloes to his fat. with that set up theres no pedals invloved either. just a nice fendery clean amp and guitar.

i saw buddy guy many many times and was 4 ft from him a few times and while he walking though the auduance playing clean and thin all of the sudden it gets fat and dirty and he was no where near his pedals or controls.. again sound guys must have something to do with it unless its all
Johhny cockeroo :)

FWIW if you like fat as a treat listen to Otis Rush Live in Europe imo that tone is as fat as fat can get.

I know he like the old bassmens (which im not fortunate enuf to have) but he also used a strat on the CD. I can get close to his fat with the same set up i use for BB and add some light OCD
as a boost

its all trial and error, yull know what works and dotn work after a while

(This message was last edited by Power Trio at 07:21 AM, Mar 9th, 2012)

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